Method and apparatus for improving disk array performance

• US 20160291881A1
• Filed: 06/20/2014
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Guining
• Application Number:
  US15/036,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20160291881A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0893 Caches characterised by their organisation or structure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1024 Latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/60 Details of cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for improving disk array performance relate to the technical field of computer systems. The method thereof comprises the following steps: setting a buffer between a disk array RAID and a disk block device; when write 10 is delivered to the disk array, temporarily saving data required by the disk array to the buffer; through organizing the data that is required by the disk array and temporarily saved by the buffer, providing corresponding query and update interfaces; and using the interfaces to perform query and update required by the write IO.

Claims

1. A method for improving performance of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), comprising:

setting a cache between a RAID and a disk block;

when a WRITE Input/Output (I/O) is issued to the RAID, temporarily storing data required by the RAID in the cache;

providing an interface corresponding to search and update required for the WRITE I/O by organizing the data required by the RAID temporarily stored in the cache; and

performing the search and update required for the WRITE I/O through the interface.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the organizing the data required by the RAID temporarily stored in the cache comprises:

dividing the data required by the RAID into a plurality of stripes suitable for concurrent processing.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the organizing the data required by the RAID temporarily stored in the cache further comprises:

forming a Logical Unit Number (LUN) binary tree with all stripes belonging to one LUN, the LUN binary tree comprising the one LUN as a root of the LUN binary tree, stripe search indices as a first-layer search tree, and the all stripes belonging to the one LUN as a second-layer search tree, wherein stripes in the second-layer search tree are leaves, and the root and the leaves form the interface for the search and update.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the forming a Logical Unit Number (LUN) binary tree with all stripes belonging to one LUN comprises:

allocating an identifier (ID) to each of the all stripes belonging to the one LUN;

setting the ID of a stripe as a stripe search index; and

forming a leaf by linking each of the all stripes belonging to the one LUN to a branch of the LUN binary tree corresponding to the stripe search index of the each of the all stripes belonging to the one LUN.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein a leaf comprises:

a number of headers, each being a pointer; and

a number of data pages being pointed to respectively by the number of headers.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

performing dual-control mirrored protection on the data required by the RAID using two such caches.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the data required by the RAID comprises data to be written to a disk and data to be read out from a disk.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein a queue of the data to be written to a disk is formed by allocating an ID to each stripe to be written to disks in an ascending sequence.

9. A device for improving performance of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), comprising:

a cache-setting module configured for;

setting a cache between a RAID and a disk block;

a data-storing module configured for;

when a WRITE Input/Output (I/O) is issued to the RAID, temporarily storing data required by the RAID in the cache;

an interfacing module configured for;

providing an interface corresponding to search and update required for the WRITE I/O by organizing the data required by the RAID temporarily stored in the cache; and

a search-update module configured for;

performing the search and update required for the WRITE I/O through the interface.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the interfacing module is configured for organizing the data required by the RAID temporarily stored in the cache by:

forming a Logical Unit Number (LUN) binary tree with all stripes belonging to one LUN, the LUN binary tree comprising the one LUN as a root of the LUN binary tree, stripe search indices as a first-layer search tree, and the all stripes belonging to the one LUN as a second-layer search tree, wherein stripes in the second-layer search tree are leaves, and the root and the leaves form the interface for the search and update.